Zeezle tried to avoid it, or cast some sort of protection, but it was no use. The skilled spellcaster hit them with a blast that sent he and his wyrm flailing sideways through the air and nearly folded Avz in half.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Don’t pass through the frigid gate,
there is nothing North to see.
Stick to the docks and mind your cocks,
or frozen you will be.
– a sailor’s song
Vanx opened his eyes to find Chelda crumpled over him, crying.
The scene assaulted his brain, for Chelda never cried. Chelda was as tough as Gallarael’s blackened hide had been.
“I’m not dead?” Vanx spoke. He was asking for he wasn’t sure what was happening.
“Moonsy is dead. Cora, too.” Chelda sobbed.
Reality set in then and, deep inside his chest, Vanx’s heart crumbled to dust.
He looked up and saw Avz and Spidera’s buzzard about to clash with the darker blue wyrm. The buzzard avoided a neck breaking snap of Avz’s jaws. Then Zeezle and his dragon got pounded across the sky as if they were a thrown child’s toy.
Something inside him welled up. Tears threatened to take his vision as he found his feet. Vanx scoop-kicked the Glaive of Gladiolus into the air and grabbed its handle when it was in front of him. He then threw it in a great, two-handed overhead arc toward Cora’s stilled form.
His mind sifted through spells he knew. They were mostly the Hoar Witch’s spells, and many were far too destructive to use here, but he settled on one and cast it before the buzzard and the bitch on its back could get away.
Chelda sucked in a breath and started toward Cora, but Vanx only sensed this in his peripheral. His full focus was on destroying Spidera and the carrion mount that had nearly peeled his pate.
Several fae swept by and loosed stick arrows at Vanx. He hadn’t cast a shielding, and was caught up in the magic he was using to form his spell. He could do little more than simply will them to fall from the air. When he did this, to his surprise, they did.
He unleashed the spell he’d chosen. It was called Vortal Implosian, and he wasn’t sure exactly what it would do when it impacted the crusty old crone. What he knew was, he’d found the spell in the section of the Hoar Witch’s books marked as ‘Dangerous and Deadly.’ She had scrawled four skulls atop its page and most only had three.
When all the magic left him, he crumpled to the ground. He saw his sphere of sizzling blue-green energy shoot up like a fire keg launched from a trebuchet. The spell had cost him all his energy but he was glad, for he wanted it to be potent enough to end the bitch who had killed Moonsy and Cora.
Queen Spidera saw the coming spell and looked past it. She met Vanx’s gaze, and he snarled at her. She snarled back, but her eyes grew wide, showing their jaundiced yellow color well, right before the spell hit them.
The magic splashed over the queen of the damned fae as if it were made of water. Both she and her buzzard were drenched in stuff that suddenly glowed and hissed into a blinding flash, which flared into heat so intense it caused Vanx to have to shield his lidded eyes with a forearm. The brightness momentarily expanded, then it quickly shrank to the size of a yard ball. Vanx could sense the two entrapped beings inside, trying desperately to break free.
With a great smooching sound, the ball shrank down to the size of a marble. Then the arcanery finally pulled into nothing and left the sky empty with a rather loud POP!
Vanx saw that Avz had recovered enough to stay in the sky, and that Zeezle was still mounted. When Vanx sat up, he nearly fell over from dizziness but, after a second try, he managed to get to his feet.
He slowly approached Cora’s huge still form. He could hear Chelda weeping, and was certain his heart couldn’t take finding that the wonderful dragon had died doing his bidding.
Chelda’s sobbing, though, was over Moonsy, for Vanx knew the dragon’s death wouldn’t affect her so.
When he saw Cora, his heart stopped, for she was devoid of even the motion of drawing breath.
Vanx’s throw may or may not have stuck the wyrm, but Chelda clearly had. It might have been too late, though.
Vanx sat in place and watched as Avz landed gingerly and let Zeezle slide from his scales.
Zeezle didn’t say a word to either of them. He only grabbed the Glaive of Gladiolus from where it was laying next to Cora’s body, and ran to give Avz a stick. The wyrm was clearly in pain.
“I’m so sorry, Chelda.” Vanx couldn’t help but start crying, too. His tears and sorrow were as much for the pain Chelda was in now, as they were over Gallarael, and now dutiful Moonsy.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
I cast this wreath into the sea,
to satisfy Nepton.
Shelter well into your depths,
the souls you’ve taken on.
– a prayer to the god of the sea
Just as sorrow started to overwhelm Vanx, Cora let out a long sigh. She belched forth a slight blast of liquid lightning breath that set the grass on fire. Then she slowly brought her head around to take the rest of them in.
“I am alivesss,” she hissed.
“You are!” Vanx had to shave the sharp edge of his relief and excitement down. Chelda had no reason to feel any joy, and in truth, he didn’t either. “Let’s finish this.”
“Yah,” Chelda snorted her agreement. Not her usual laughing sound, but a long, nose clearing draw. “We can grieve later. Let’s finish what we started. I want to be with the pup, Vanx.” Chelda’s eyes looked to be pleading with him, a sight he’d never seen before.
He couldn’t have denied her anything at that moment. Had she said, Let’s leave the last gem-seed in the grass and go home, Vanx would have without a second thought. But as he thought about it, he wasn’t so sure where home was anymore.
There was no one left at Saint Elm’s Deep, or even around that Heart Tree, who he was close to. Dragon Isle was where he would take Chelda, for her horses were there, but the only place to stay dry when it rained was Pyra’s lair.
“I hope my feeling is right,” Vanx said to Zeezle. He was still woozy from expending all his energy into such a destructive spell. “The Tome of Arbor, the looking glass, and that traitorous little Goss spider are all gone.”
“Good riddance,” Chelda said as she walked over and gave Avz a pat on the neck. “Let’s be done with this. If you know where, you know.”
Vanx found so much certainty in Chelda that it gave him reassurance.
Without another word, they mounted. Zeezle in front of Chelda, on Avz’s newly healed back, Vanx on Cora’s mended shoulders. Taking to the sky this time was a bitter happening. Of all the things the goddess could allow, the death of loyal Chelda’s lover, and the second bravest elf to have ever lived, was the least just Vanx could imagine.
He avoided thinking blasphemous thoughts about the one who gave him life by setting his mind on where they needed to go to finish. They passed a few rivers and more crop fields than Vanx could imagine. Late that night, they passed a sizeable city at the edge of a finger of forest, and Vanx knew from his map studies that it was called Tip. The welcoming smell of wood smoke and cooking meat was in the air, but there was an offal undertone that Vanx might not have detected had he not spent so much time taking in the world through Poops’s perception.
But then they came to Xwarda, a city that would have taken up at least half of the Zythian continent. Even at night, it was a wonder to behold. The lamplit lanes and wide trade roads made the metropolis resemble an archery target when seen from above. Away from the bull’s eye, against the foothills of the mountains where they were going, was the fabled palace and lake from The Ballad of Ornspike.
Vanx wasn’t sure if he would visit Xwarda or not. Chelda wanted to go home, and he did, too. He’d decided that home was wherever the Adventurer was. They had a few secluded islands they could sail around, and just not go ashore, for that is where everything seemed to g
o wrong.
Cora had an island, too. It all seemed a lot less wonderful without Gallarael or Moonsy here, and he found himself crying like a babe as Cora put Xwarda behind them and eased them closer to the ground.
Vanx could feel the gem-seed throbbing in his pocket. It guided Cora now, and he knew they were almost there.
Vanx, nor his dragon, were prepared for the Great Carpi Ultura. It was so much more breathtaking that, in the back of his mind, Vanx composed a song just to give it glory.
The trees were at the bottom of a wide valley, evenly spaced in a perfect circle. They were straight, tall, and slightly glowing. Vanx checked the sky and found there was only a small slice of moon showing this night. There was a soft amber radiance coming from the trees, and had it been just one tree, it might have seemed like a trick of the moonlight, but there wasn’t enough moon, and this was no trick.
Vanx felt the gem-seed longing to be in the ground here, and he felt the rightness of it. When Cora came back-flapping down in the circle of trees, he saw they were indeed exactly the same. In fact, he was momentarily taken aback because he watched an identical leaf flutter away from every tree around him in the same sing-song drift.
He was reminded of the mirror house at the few carnivals he’s performed with before he’d gone to Highlake. This wasn’t a spell, or a trickster’s illusion, though. The ground itself trembled in awe of the magnificence surrounding it.
Avz came down and Chelda was off his back and stalking toward Vanx with her war hammer drawn.
She didn’t even care about all the beauty and power around her. This was just another place she would someday exaggerate to Ronzon when they were at sea. Vanx pulled the gem-seed from his pocket. It sent tingling power radiating up his arm and into his chest and, if only for a few moments, he understood the whole of the Book of Arbor, and even why the world was, and would remain to be, once this was done.
Once this was done.
Vanx threw the glowing diamond jewel ahead of him. Just like he’d willed those arrows to fall, he willed the gem-seed to hold in place, at about chest height to himself, which was just over waist high to Chel, and perfect for her swing.
To the sky, he ordered into the ethereal. Zeezle hadn’t dismounted, and he didn’t get a chance, but he threw Vanx the Glaive of Gladiolus as they lifted away. Vanx caught it and barely had time to drop into a sprawl and clench his eyes shut before Chelda’s hammer came down, smashing the gem-seed into a heart-stopping explosion of magic.
When Vanx looked up, he didn’t see Chelda anymore. She was gone.
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Like roots they spread and dug in deep,
they built a kingdom strong.
And if the short-lived start to take hold here,
we’ll end up but a song.
– Balldamned (a Zythian song)
Noooo, Vanx heard Zeezle’s voice in the ethereal, and knew the expanding ring had probably ripped her apart. It almost had last time, and he was crying in a fetal ball because he could have warned her, or had her do it some other way. He had the Mirror of Portent now, and could have used it to avoid this.
There were so many things he could have done that he was overwhelmed with guilt. He only imagined what he looked like, with snot and sorrow dripping from his nose and lids ringed red from wiping away his tears. But he heard a voice, the voice of his goddess, and it was as soothing as it was comfortable.
My emerald eyed champion, you have proven your devotion. The goddess’s voice was kind. It filled the voids inside Vanx with calm assurance. She isn’t dead, the goddess said. Chelda is alive. She and Gloryvine are in the Nexus. The Troika has been watching through Moonsy and, after the sixth tree was quickened, their power to transport them out of the reaper’s grasp was restored.
But— Vanx started
Have faith, Vanx, she said, cutting him off. Have faith in yourself. You’ve followed your heart all along. And though you’ve lost a lot along the way, you have gained plenty as well.
But what do I do now? he asked, as she started to fade. The radiant power released from the gem-seed was fading, too.
You’ve a dragon, Vanx. The goddess grinned. Follow your heart.
Vanx could do little more than lay there as she faded from him and the power of the diamond gem-seed dissipated.
Follow my heart?
He watched a great Angel Oak Heart Tree form, but its magnificence didn’t fill the holes the goddess had. Chelda and Moonsy were alive, but Gallarael, Thorn, and Pyra weren’t.
The trunk grew wider and the branches reached this way and that, as if they couldn’t decide which direction to go. As they thickened, and grew limbs and leaves at their ends, the weight brought some of them low to the ground. It was a powerful looking tree, with a wide stance and an even wider reach. Soon, it began to glow as the ring of Great Carpi Ultura did.
It’s roots probably found the wardstone bedrock, Vanx thought.
When he finally stood back up and looked around, Vanx saw they’d somehow placed the seed in the exact center of the circle without even thinking about doing so.
What happened to Chelda, Zeezle’s ethereal voice was a panic.
She and Moonsy are both safe in the Nexus, Vanx told him. The Troika was watching.
Vanx watched as Zeezle brought Avz around and came flapping down, away from the still expanding Heart Tree. When he didn’t see Cora, he didn’t panic. She came a few moments later and landed closer to Vanx and the tree than Avz had.
Vanx let his hand run across one of the glowing branches of the Angel Oak. He felt it reaching into him, giving him strength and hope, and those feelings stayed with him.
Where are we going, Vanx? Zeezle asked.
The goddess said to follow my heart, he responded, but that can wait until morning. Could you start a fire?
Where does your heart tell you to go? Zeezle asked a little later as they lay in their bedrolls opposite each other across the small magical fire. The dragons lay around them, each in a protective half-circle curl.
I’m torn, Zeez. Vanx shrugged. Part of me wants to go see the pup, and part of me wants to track down that old wizard. His tower is here in Xwarda.
Which will it be?
Let me sleep on it, Zeez. Vanx yawned and, as he tried to fall into slumber, he found it was times like this that he missed Sir Poopsalot the most. Still, he wouldn’t decide what his heart wanted until morning. Until then, he would dream.
The End
Book Ten - A Gossamer Lens
Other titles by M. R. Mathias
The Legend of Vanx Malic
Book One – Through the Wildwood
Book Two – Dragon Isle
Book Three – Saint Elm’s Deep
Book Four – That Frigid Fargin’ Witch
Book Five – Trigon Daze
Book Six – Paragon Dracus
Book Seven – The Far Side of Creation
Book Eight – The Long Journey Home
Book Nine – The Tome of Arbor
Book ten – A Gossamer Lens
The Saga of the Dragoneers
The First Dragoneer – Free for Kindle
The Royal Dragoneers – Nominated, Locus Poll 2011
Cold Hearted Son of a Witch
The Confliction
The Emerald Rider
Rise of the Dragon King
Blood and Royalty – Winner. 2015 Readers Favorite Award,
and 2015 Kindle Book Award Semifinalist
The Wardstone Trilogy
Book One - The Sword and the Dragon
Book Two - Kings, Queens, Heroes, & Fools
Book Three - The Wizard & the Warlord
Short Stories:
Crimzon & Clover I - Orphaned Dragon, Lucky Girl
Crimzon & Clover II - The Tricky Wizard
Crimzon & Clover III - The Grog
Crimzon & Clover IV - The Wrath of Crimzon
Crimzon & Clover V - Killer of Giants
Crimz
on & Clover VI – One Bad Bitch
Crimzon &Clover VII – The Fortune’s Fortune
Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #1 Dingo the Dragon Slayer
Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #2 Oonzil the oathbreaker
Master Zarvin’s Action and Adventure Series #3 The Greatest Quest
To hear about new releases,
sales and giveaways,
follow M. R. Mathias @DahgMahn on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or visit www.mrmathias.com
A Gossamer Lens (The Legend of Vanx Malic Book 10) Page 10